Celebrating Halloween with a deaf child

We love Autumn, especially Halloween. As soon as October arrives, we always make a trip to a little farm in our village for pumpkin picking and we choose a variety of sizes and colours to lay decoratively outside the house. Isaac is always very excited to find the biggest one he can and loves pushing his own wheelbarrow.

By the time the October half-term arrives, Isaac is very run down and exhausted due to the demands of the first seven weeks of the school year. Two years ago, in his Reception year of school, we decided to go glamping for the half-term and Isaac ended up being admitted to hospital for a week with a terrible ear infection. I also anticipate the winter germs and tiredness, making sure we have lots of down time planned during the holidays. I buy in a variety of Halloween crafts and messy play packs.

We do also have a few trips out to exciting Halloween events, Isaac’s favourite is our local BeWILDerwood lantern parade. Isaac spends the day with his brother or friends playing on the high slides and climbing in the treetops before the parade begins at dusk, which walks you through the spookily lit site. It’s a really enjoyable day out for us all as a family.

When 31 October arrives, I decorate our house with cobwebs, spiders, lights and other spooks, and put lots of newspaper down in the kitchen for Isaac and his brother to carve their pumpkins. They both start off very keenly, scooping out the insides, however it’s usually me who finishes this gruelling task! Isaac does enjoy drawing his own spooky face on his pumpkin and I help him to carve it out. Last year he was very lucky as one of my artistic friends popped over and made him a Paw Patrol pumpkin which was fantastic. We have a party tea and watch a Halloween film, before heading out trick or treating. Now that Isaac can read, he really enjoys watching films with the subtitles on. We live in a small village which conveniently is always very quiet, this really helps with occasions like Halloween as it isn’t too overwhelming for a deaf child. We can visit a few houses in a loop and, if Isaac hasn’t heard what has been said, I’m able to repeat it for him and explain that he’s deaf.

We like to celebrate all special occasions in our house, we don’t go ridiculously over the top but I think children aren’t little for long and it’s so nice to see the excitement on their faces. Isaac finds so many big occasions overwhelming so we really enjoy special days that we can celebrate from home as a family.